Curious; what is this style of front lower pivot shaft?

[Twincam]

Pivot_shafts.jpg

Disassembled a Mk3 mini and one side of the car had a style of pivot shaft that I hadn't seen before - since the early 70's my only experiences have been with Mk1's and all my pivot shafts look like the bottom one in the photo.

The extra D shaped "washer" that's welded to the pivot shaft (top shaft in photo) is something new to me. It almost looks like it's intended as a safety feature to prevent the small D from popping out of the subframe if the frame were to spread far enough.

Is this a production part? When was it introduced?

[Spider]

It's an Aussie one. Not sure if any other countries used them, but they were fitted from the early 60's to the end of our local production in 82.

They have no advantage over the UK types and in fact, have been the cause of stripped threads as some people, not knowing, think they need to be tightened until the big washer comes flush with the subframe, which of course, they don't.

[Twincam]

Excellent. A good friend-in-Minis of mine, has a Mk1 Aussie Mini he's been intending to restore for some time. I'll pass this part to him and let him know that's where it belongs. Thanks.

[Spider]

That does sound a more appropriate home for it !

[nippycars]

I've removed them from original early U.K mk1 1070 S’s never from 850’s definitely not only an export thing.

[bwaminispeed]

I have some off Canadian Minis, so, yeah, exported........